Using known fiqh issues to solve the unknown

One of the fiqh books I am working on is Ibn Daqīq al-‘Eid’s Tuḥfat al-Labīb, which appears to be the earliest commentary on Abū Shujā‘ al-Aṣfahānī’s Ghāyat al-Taqrīb (translated as The Ultimate Conspectus). His commentary provides evidence for most of the issues given in the book. He frequently presents alternative opinions within the school, differentiating between the opinions of Imam al-Shāfi‘ī (a “qaul”), and the opinions of the “colleagues” (the “aṣḥāb”) – early major Shāfi‘ī scholars (a “wajh”). Occasionally, he presents parallel paths of transmitted alternative opinions within the school (each path is a “ṭarīq,” which combine to form “ṭuruq”). There are even a few places where Imam al-Shāfi‘ī gives different answers to similar issues, and each of those answers will be transferred to the other and an additional opinion will then be extracted. The following examples show many of these things in action.

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